Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

TravelPen is a user-generated travel story platform operated from the United Kingdom. For the purposes of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, TravelPen is the data controller for personal data collected through this platform. You can contact us at admin@travelpen.io.

2. What Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of personal data:

• Account information: your name, email address, and any profile details you provide when registering.
• Content you publish: stories, photographs, tags, and any other material you submit to the platform.
• Usage data: information about how you use the platform, including pages visited and features used, collected via cookies and analytics tools.
• Communications: any messages you send us directly, including pitch emails and support requests.
• Submissions sent without an account: if you send us a story through one of our share forms, we collect the answers you write, any photographs you upload, your name, your email address, and optionally a one-line description of yourself and a link to your own site or social profile. We also store a one-way hash of your IP address, which we use only to limit how many submissions can be sent from one place in a day. We never store the address itself.

We do not collect sensitive personal data and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under the age of 16.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your personal data to:

• Operate and maintain your account and the platform.
• Display and promote your published stories as set out in our Terms of Service.
• Send you account-related communications such as notifications and updates.
• Respond to your enquiries and support requests.
• Analyse usage patterns to improve the platform.
• Comply with legal obligations.

Our legal basis for processing your data is primarily the performance of a contract (providing you with the platform services), and where applicable, our legitimate interests in operating and improving the platform. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered the impact on your rights and are satisfied those interests are not overridden.

If you send us a story without an account, our legal basis is our legitimate interests in editing and publishing the story you chose to send us, and in being able to reach you about it. We contact you only about that story, as described below.

4. Emails We Send

These are the only emails we send, and all of them are about something you did:

• A welcome email when you create an account.
• Moderation emails if one of your stories is removed or your account is suspended, explaining why and how to respond.
• A receipt when you send us a story through a share form, containing a copy of your own answers.
• Follow-up questions about a story you sent us, where something needs filling in.
• A link to your story when it is published.

We do not send marketing emails and we do not pass your address to anyone else for them to email you. You can reply to any of these to reach a person.

5. Your Content

6. Sharing Your Data

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your data in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers: third-party tools and services that help us operate the platform, such as hosting, authentication, and analytics providers. These parties process data on our behalf and are bound by appropriate data processing agreements.
• Legal requirements: where we are required to disclose information by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of TravelPen, our users, or the public.
• Business transfers: if TravelPen is acquired or merged with another entity, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

7. Cookies and Analytics

We use cookies and similar technologies to operate the platform and understand how it is used. This includes essential cookies required for the platform to function, and analytics cookies that help us understand usage patterns. You can control cookie settings through your browser, though disabling certain cookies may affect how the platform works.

8. Data Retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will remove your personal data within a reasonable period, except where we are required to retain it for legal or regulatory purposes. Published stories will be removed on account deletion, subject to the content licence provisions in our Terms of Service.

Stories sent to us without an account are kept only as long as they are useful for the thing you sent them for:

• If we decide not to publish it, we delete the whole submission: your answers, your email address and your photographs. Nothing is kept.
• If we publish it, the answers and the uploaded photographs are deleted once the story is live, because the published story carries what was used. We keep your name, your email address, the date you agreed to our terms, and a link to the published story. That is so we can reach you about your own story, show what you agreed to, and invite you to claim an account later.
• While it is still with us, everything you sent stays in our submission queue, which only our staff can see.

You can ask us to delete any of this at any time by emailing admin@travelpen.io. We will action it within 30 days.

9. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a data breach where we are legally required to do so.

10. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erasure: you can ask us to delete your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Restriction: you can ask us to restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.
• Portability: you can ask us to provide your data in a portable format.
• Objection: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at admin@travelpen.io. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

11. International Transfers

Some of our third-party service providers may process data outside the UK. Where this occurs, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with UK GDPR requirements.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Where changes are material, we will notify registered users by email before the changes take effect. The date at the top of this page reflects when the policy was last updated.

13. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at admin@travelpen.io.